Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Andy Vences was, for all I could see, pitch-perfect in his match against Dominic Coca- unless you're an ungodly nitpick. It was a tough, game guy with some frustrated bluster against what looked like a beautifully well-schooled boxer, last night. Coca landed maybe only one significant looking right hand to the head but overall he was intercepted with his best shots and blasted with accurate check hooks and jabs, no matter what he tried or how hard he followed or baited Vences to brawl. Coca did the best he could do with what he had and was forced into corner retirement having no success, talk of a damaged left hand and a day job to worry about. He's got nothing to be ashamed about in his performance. He wanted it, he got it, he did what he could with it for his circumstances.

Andy Vences is now on my radar. I was very, very impressed with his excellent performance. I think he's shown himself one to watch. He had the honour of best pure boxing performance on the FS1 card, in my opinion. He may not have the punching power that gets the casuals riles up but what I saw was some very aesthetically pleasing boxing and some very interesting potential, whether it's at Super Featherweight or Lightweight (this was held over the 130 limit). Andy Vences, still undefeated prospect, with a sharp performance and 3rd- round RTD/TKO victory in his TV date. Let's get him back for another card soon, Fox.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Howard Cosell interviewing Muhammad Ali and basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain about a potential novelty fight between the two, gets the men to compare hand size. Ali dismisses it with a mention of David VS Goliath.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Emmanuel Taylor in the opening rounds just could not find the next gear to keep up with Chris Algieri. I couldn't help but think of Micky Ward for all the left hook head/left hook body combinations from Algieri. Algieri stayed on the move and firing combinations all night long. By round three Teddy Atlas asks how you could not have Algieri up three rounds to nothing because Taylor hasn't "left the dressing room" yet. In round five, Taylor starts to heat up and Algieri doesn't let him take over but Taylor starts to come back on some cards (not mine) when he gets going. But Algieri's got some finesse to him at this level, that's for sure. He was too skilled for Taylor, as I saw the fight. There was nothing Taylor was going to do to get him.

One of the best heavyweight contenders of the 1980's, Gerry Cooney is in the audence tonight, it's announced in the sixth round. Cooney does an interview praising the new hometown (Huntington, NY, USA) fighter and Gerry looks and sounds healthy and happy. It's good to see. Taylor started to find more success pressuring Algieri in the second half of the fight but mostly couldn't pin him down and land more than one flush shot at a time. Algieri is borderline showboating with his movement by round seven. I think he's saying to Taylor "I'm the athlete here." the best way he knows. Taylor's letting them go but very few are finding the mark. It looks like you've got to set up some traps to wage war with Algieri and Taylor doesn't have them in his bag of tricks.

Algieri was still in control through the later rounds. Not for lack of trying by Taylor. Once he heated up he gave it a very good go. Taylor started out red hot in the final round and tried to lay it out on the line early in the round. Algieri took some good shots but didn't let the action get away too far. He finished strong enough with some of his own bombs. The fight ends with a good round from both men but it was Algieri's night, no doubt. Teddy says it's "Not a great fight but an interesting fight." and I agree. I enjoyed it. It didn't have very stiff competition on this card but it was a good main event to save the night. Both guys finished very strong and I really appreciate that.

I don't know how Algieri looks with a guy that can meet him step for step but I didn't think this one was too close. I definitely want to see this Chris Algieri again. I would be very intrigued to have him in against someone like Breidis Prescott at this juncture. Taylor will have to go back to the drawing board a bit here but I certainly wouldn't scoff at another ESPN card with him in it either. Algieri's now got Taylor, Arnaoutis and Jargal on his undefeated record. I think it's time we see him in with a bigger name after he's passed these solid tests. Teddy Atlas' unofficial scorecard:
Total score: 97-93, for Algieri

This is contested just breaking into the welterweight division, though they're both presumably light welterweights.They're only one pound over the light welterweight limit. Early in the fight it's obvious the skill level has had a big increase with these two by a significant margin from the opening match of newbies. There's a lot more veteran guile and authority on display from both fighters, though it quickly becomes evident that it's no more or less crowd-pleasing.

In round two, Kinda is warned for a low blow and Bryan takes a very short allowed break. There's a caution by the ref to watch their heads after a clash in round three. Teddy says Bryan was cut in a head clash two fights ago and that Kinda has both won and lost via technical decisions after head clashes stopped the fights early. Kinda is cut tonight after the head clash, it seems and the ref makes note to the commission that it wasn't via punch.

Joe Tessitore says there's a small cut above the left eye of Jeremy Bryan in the fourth round. Teddy narrates a replay of several head clashes and explains why their tendency to fall in with punches leads to it. Teddy says Bryan wants to be aggressive but he doesn't know how. It has been somewhat ugly. Mostly, I feel the fight reflects that these guys are on the same overall level. But I have no problem with the scores. Jeremy Bryan gets a close UD and it's clear it means a great deal to him. Congratulations to Bryan on the win. It was a tough night and it won't be nice to hear the commentary they received when they see it back, and they both got a little bit banged up and kept doing their best.

During the match Teddy Atlas makes a specific point of saying that the main event will be good in hopes that disgruntled fans will stay tuned. Not a good sign for these fighters. They're giving it their best. It's not a good clash of styles. They can only do what they can do. Joe Tessitore goes so far as to put down the co-feature as "under-delivering". That's too bad. Not really wrong but too bad. It seems like a big shame for the fact that all four fighters on the card so far seemed to have done the best with what they had. It's just one of those nights. But without better management and a bigger budget from ESPN, this is what we get. They just don't treat boxing with enough attention or financial support at ESPN. That's the bottom line there. There's a reason why we get this on ESPN2.

America treats boxing like number two, compared to the way it used to. Some say it's a result of all the talent from other countries taking away public interest in the money country. With Floyd Mayweather Junior, Andre Ward and Tim Bradley out there, I think that's pure bunk. It's promoted badly and regulated horribly. And treated like it's managed-just as badly. We can get better cards on ESPN(2), guys. Come on. Your own commentators know you're not getting the best, even by your own minor league standards. You don't have to be HBO or Showtime to do better than this. And you don't have to have super stars to pick more entertaining or higher level matches either.

For the first Friday Night Fights match tonight we got a scrappy 4-rounder. Wendy Toussaint shoved Anthony Gangemi down in round one and round two, earning a warning from the referee. He was clearly the more powerful man but seemed to fight nervously, trying with little discretion to land big uppercuts but landing some powerful body shots early. Teddy Atlas is spot on about Toussaint giving up his height.

In round three, Gangemi managed to pull Toussaint down. Three rounds where someone goes down and no official knockdowns! Toussaint seems to want to use his height here and there but be too excitable to do so. He gets drawn into a fight more in the third round. Toussaint really, really loads up from the outside and almost faux-bolo-punches to no avail. He does it several times in this match.

You can't fault either on their work-rate tonight but while the effort is there, there just isn't much craft behind it. It's a wide, telegraphed display from these gentlemen, early in their pro career. I almost get the feeling that if either of these guys had shortened up their punches just a bit, we'd have had a knockout. For who, I don't know. The fight ends with Toussaint getting his fourth four-round decision victory, but this time a majority decision off the back of three UD's. He'll have to wait for his first professional knockout, I guess. I hope he shortens up those punches and works on his jab. Teddy Atlas' unofficial scorecard:
Total score: 39-37, for Toussaint

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Kamil Laszczyk took on a tough, experienced professional in Daniel Diaz and put away 8 solid, satisfying experience rounds for ESPN's Friday Night Fights card. Kamil had an advantage in speed and coordination in his slightly slick, busy style. But most would agree that he took a step up and there was some pressure from inside and outside of the ring to contend with because of it. Not only did he get the win but got it by near shutout. You can't say he didn't have a productive match or that he didn't do himself proud.

Laszczyk is at least a solid prospect at featherweight. That said, despite his dominating the action, I couldn't say he looked to be spectacular. He looked good. He did get caught with a couple bombs from Diaz but he didn't seem hurt. He didn't seem like he needed to change his game plan and he didn't. He was, as I said, just slightly slick at this level and he did score a knock down, so he has a little pop in his punches. He had a good offensive diversity and took full advantage of firing faster than Diaz could hope to. He moved very well. He had class temperament and no one should put that down. He dominated a good class of opponent when he got a good TV date and he put in the work so that not only did he clearly win but he didn't let the crowd get away from him either. There's nothing to knock.

But he did not leave me with an overall big impression for a championship future. What I took away from the performance is that he's as likely as not to find a shot at a world title somewhere, whether he's successful or not. That, in and of itself, is an impressive thing for an athlete and I don't seek to diminish that. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't think he looked good enough to earmark him as a star. We'll see. I'd like to see him get another TV date soon. He's certainly not a bad watch and I'd consider his inclusion in another ESPN card to be welcomed, speaking as a fan.

Congratulations to him on a dominant performance. As for Diaz, when he landed, he did tend to land well-placed, flush, hard shots. The main difference is that he just did not have the speed of hand or foot to put the punches together like Laszczyk did. Because when he landed hard, his man was either answering back faster than he could successfully react to, offensively or defensively, or he was just out of reach. Diaz had a hard night and he hung tough, taking a lot of shots. He was a tough, determined guy in there but he was operating at too much of an athletic disadvantage to overcome. His effort did lend itself to a productive experience for Laszczyk only, which I'm sure was not his goal but that's the way it works out sometimes for a fellow like Diaz. There's no shame in it.

Notable Damage: Diaz suffered a cut over the left eye and Laszczyk over the right, I believe. Sometimes it's hard to tell when the cuts aren't dramatic as these weren't.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

If we're being realistic, what we had for a main event was two men who are definitely not likely picks for future world titlists at any of the weights they are accustomed to fighting in. I get that. That said, this seems to be a talking point amongst fans and their judgment of how good a main event this made for ESPN. I say we got a very good main event and that it was predictably good. It's true, these are not likely future world titlist level boxers, but they are more than good enough to make an excellent fight and they were clearly well-matched like you could have predicted. These men have exactly what you need for a good main event. Boxing fans are often the hardest to please of all sports. That is not ESPN's fault here. While they may have not done themselves any favors in allowing Roberto Acevedo onto their broadcast, they made a good value pick on Garcia/Gonzalez.

What I like about what happened is that Gonzalez is very similar, although probably not quite on the level of super middleweight contender Marco Antonio Periban, who I feel is a bit more likely to pick up some major title somewhere. He moves and fires quick, educated combinations with great discipline, great consistency, regardless of the difficulty in doing so. He can do it while hurt, he can do it while exhausted. He's a pro. The fact that he just didn't seem to have the pop in his punches to deter a tough guy like Garcia didn't stop him from doing what worked from the standpoint of scoring. From Garcia's end, he is disciplined as a patient, confident stalker. He's underrated in what he does. While he was at a disparity in speed and maneuverability, he didn't let it bother him. He knew he could take Gonzalez's shots, he knew he could hurt Gonzalez when he got off flush and he never seemed to waver from that understanding. It takes a strong mind to keep up the fight he needed on Friday night and he had it.

This was a very interesting match of men and even though Gonzalez seemed to genuinely and strongly disagree with the decision (as opposed to putting on for show), I felt it was on the money and that Garcia had just pulled away down the stretch. I didn't have him ahead by much because it was only ten rounds but I did have him ahead and I strongly believe if it were scheduled for championship rounds he'd have broken Gonzalez down, for as little as that might mean now. They were in the same neighborhood on skills but Garcia was simply built tougher and it made the difference, it looked to me, narrow as it was over ten. Sometimes all it comes down to is taking it a little better and giving it a little harder.

As with close fights, there were plenty of fans calling "robbery" no matter how ridiculous that is. I don't feel Garcia got enough credit for shots that were bouncing off his guard. He took plenty of shots but he wasn't careless in there. It was still very, very close and I can see it scored other ways, especially with the point deduction, which was valid enough. Garcia was pretty roughhouse but it wasn't anything to get up in arms about. The referee kept it from getting to that point. A split decision is about what I had expected and that's just fine with me. Good judging.

Congratulations to Garcia for staying in the fringe, to Gonzalez for raising his stock when television gave him the opportunity, as I see it, and ESPN for seeing a small diamond in the rough-the rough being what you have when your budget doesn't allow the star roster available to the likes of HBO and Showtime. This match may not have been a classic but it was damned good. I'm up for seeing both of these fellows again.

Please note: Boxrec currently has an error, saying that Gonzalez is the one who had a point deduction. It was Garcia, for a shove with the left elbow after largely a night where Garcia did a lot of bumping and shoving off to create space. Like I said, he was fighting roughhouse but it was kept in check.

In the world of boxing, a promoter's job is not to tell any version of the truth, let alone nothing but the truth. But sometimes a promoter will engage in noteworthy BS, even for a promoter! Do they figure everyone is ignorant? I doubt it. I assume they think it works on two levels. 1. Some casual fans really are ignorant enough to fall for anything they want to fall for. 2. Fans who know better will be infuriated and there's just no bad publicity in it regardless, no matter what's drumming up the interest. Arum's quote, played on ESPN's Friday Night Fights broadcast, on the seventh, during an interview with Todd Grisham:

"Don't you understand why the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight can't and won't happen? Listen, I promoted Mayweather for over ten years. The one thing I learned during that period is that Mayweather doesn't like to fight-doesn't want to fight a southpaw. Why? Because his whole style-defensively-is geared for a right-handed fighter. And to compound that, if the southpaw is really fast and moves, that would give Mayweather and his style a lot of trouble and it would really jeopardize Mayweather's record as an undefeated fighter. That's why the fight is not happening. Because-I mean this is almost like before the second world war. You know, Hitler wanted this and Hitler wanted that and if you gave him this then peace would occur. But it was never enough. It was never enough because Hitler's dream was to go to war and conquer all of Europe, if not the world. Now, Mayweather's dream is to stay undefeated. So, whatever you give him, if Manny agreed to fight for nothing, it wouldn't be enough. Don't you understand that?"

Now, Bob Arum may be 82-years-old, but this man is still as capable, on a pure artistry level, as any promoter who walks the earth. He trolls as well as Oscar could ever hope to, even past his prime. Floyd Mayweather is like Hitler. He has made it obvious that he can make millions of dollars fighting virtually anyone he hand picks. If someone is a mandatory challenger for a belt he has and he doesn't want to fight them, he doesn't need the belt and he can vacate and move on. He's shown us it's just that easy at his level of stardom. Yet he chose to face Robert Guerrero, a southpaw, as one of his two opponents in 2013, Victor Ortiz, a southpaw, as his only opponent of 2011; and when he moved up to welterweight, who were the first two opponents he faced? Southpaw Sharmba Mitchell and likely the fastest southpaw he could've conceivably found at the weight, Zab Judah. Who forced him to fight these guys exactly? He keeps deliberately choosing and clearly defeating southpaws, so he must be . . . avoiding southpaws because his defense isn't geared for them!

With the Mayweather southpaw myth invoked, one that anyone who has any familiarity with Floyd should have the intelligence to debunk, and a Hitler comparison made, Bob Arum laid down a trolling to rival all trollings. It was like watching Picasso paint.

Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing

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Saturday, February 8, 2014

ESPN's card started out predictably poor for anyone who had access to boxrec.com beforehand. A 6'0 young gun prospect in the welterweight division, Erickson Lubin, had what can only be described as a waste of time for all involved, in the respect of honest competitive experience. It was no fault of his either. His opponent? Roberto Acevedo-a man who has been disqualified three different times as a professional. Including twice in a row for fouling and holding. "Obviously, Acevedo,
I'm going to guess, never intended to find a way here tonight." Teddy
Atlas said. While I don't know what happened, my suspicion is that Teddy
is right. It was a sour opener to the show and one which was almost expected. I like that they give very young prospects a spot as they're building their careers with lower level opponents for experience. That's fine. Being able to see a potential future star as he's developing is part of what makes watching ESPN worthwhile, because it takes up so much of their coverage. But when you've got a guy with the background Acevedo has, I don't know why you'd televise him.

ESPN begged to get burned here and they did. There is certainly a reason why you do not see a lot of "RTD1" outcomes. Someone retiring immediately after the first round in their corner is a sad, sad thing. I've either forgotten about or have never seen Roberto Acevedo. I don't know which, if I'm honest. Now, I am usually the last person to jump in and criticize a fighter for anything "heart'' related. Not because I believe the cliche about all men stepping into the ring having to be brave (I don't), but more that I think it's most common when a fighter doesn't continue in a match that he usually has a perfectly fair reason, even if it isn't readily apparent. Because of that, because sometimes you will not have a clue what they're going through (and never find out, often enough), I rarely think to criticize "heart". For all I know someone is severely impaired and understandably knows there's little point in continuing. But no matter what really happened last night on the overall decent ESPN boxing card, Acevedo left the impression that he never intended on honestly competing at all.

Again, that's not a judgment on him. I don't know what really happened and do not claim to. His hand could have broken in that very first round against a man he'd have gone from underdog against to punching bag against. I don't know. I'm sure the rare first-round penalty inflicted by the referee did not help if he had gone in with honest intentions. But the impression I got, and a lot of fans watching, Acevedo's history helping the case, makes me think we had a guy who showed up for a paycheck he never intended to earn. It was assumed to be a "prospect vs opponent" match but that doesn't mean the opponent is expected to give a no-try-effort. Which is what it looked to be. It came off as the opposite of what makes boxing great. After this very poor show, I watched Norberto Gonzalez and Roberto Garcia give each other their best stuff for ten hard rounds. This made Acevedo's one-round performance, where he was penalized for holding, that much worse by contrast.

No matter what happened or what the cause of this outcome was, there is no reason for ESPN or anyone else to touch this guy, even if it is only as "the opponent". Even if he is misrepresented by the general impression we're left with (entirely possible), a 3 DQ and 1 RTD1 history makes an untouchable fighter for television, I would think. Lubin did his job, looked pretty good for what little he had the chance to do and I'd like to see him back soon. I feel sorry for him, in a way, because sometimes, in this sport, an easy night can actually be worse for you than a tough one. In some ways.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

When Teddy Atlas praises a fighter as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, I never do think he's only blowing smoke or jumping on the hype trains that come rolling through every channel that covers boxing. I always think he's giving it to us as he sees it, whether we like it or not. This week, he was very glowing in his praise of two fighters who are well regarded but maybe not yet big stars in his country, nor men who can be claimed by his employing channel, that I know, and I thought I'd spotlight what he had to say.

"I love him. I love Triple G. Because you love him. Because these people love him. Because he makes exciting fights. He doesn't just win. But he does it in a fan-friendly, TV-friendly-... a friendly way that we all enjoy. He goes to the body well. He's aggressive. He's a good puncher. And, you know what? He's more than all that. The reason he's undefeated, he's a world champion and he's one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world? He had 400-so amateur fights. He won a silver medal. He's got the confidence, the calmness, that comes with all that experience, with all that success. But also he's the boss without just walking in and sticking his chin out and getting hit with punches. He doesn't walk into punches. He arranges distance pretty well. He's more than just a wrecking ball. He's a wrecking ball that doesn't get wrecked."

After being asked about the recent Garcia/Burgos match:

"I see what I always see, Todd, with Mikey Garcia. That he's a master. A master at controlling range, controlling distance. He knows exactly where he's got to be, to be out of range, and exactly where he's got to go to be in range. And, how does he do it? Well, simply put, it's all about the feet when it comes to Mike Garcia. He's got the best feet and the best judge of distance in the whole boxing world."

~Teddy Atlas, while working as expert commentator for ESPN's Friday Night Fights broadcast, the 31st of January, 2014.

During the ninth round of the terrific bout between Ruslan Provodnikov and Mike Alvarado in 2013, Roy Jones Junior's commentary took a turn for the "Huh?" when he acknowledged the strength of Ruslan Provodnikov with this explanation:

"He's an organic puncher, Jim. He been eating deer hearts, raw fish all his life. And it's showing in his punching power right now. No GMO's and all the hormones they put in the meat."

Jim Lampley moved right along without any acknowledgement of the subject matter whatsoever.

About Me

This place is all straight talk on the sport and nostalgia, with no trolling for arguments and provocation like many boxing hangouts. I won't pander to anyone for promotional hype or call it as I don't see it. I try not to say a thing I wouldn't say to a person's face. If you support how we do it, come on back, maybe give us a like or share for whatever page, on whatever social media. We'd appreciate it.

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